Promise Me (N.S.)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

It had been weeks since I had heard from Niall and by now, I was convinced that it was over. As much as it was killing me inside, I had been trying to let it go. But nothing was working. The others knew not to ask me about him; it was already rough enough not seeing him, but hearing his name just drove the knife in even deeper.

Zayn was still over all the time; he and Louis had been getting more serious. He acted strange around me, though. I couldn't quite place why. After all, I hadn't done anything to provoke his behavior, had I?

We all sat in the living room; Louis and Zayn sat rather close to each other with their new friend, Liam. I didn't know much about him other than the fact that he knew Niall and Zayn. I sat in the armchair by myself; there was no sense in me sitting on the couch; the armchair is enough for once person and that's all I was right now without him.

They all hollered at the television as the football team they had been rooting for scored another goal. I hadn't been paying much attention; I hadn't paid much attention to anything lately and that was okay by me. If I zoned out, my mind was blank; blank was good. Blank meant numb; no pain. And that's what I was desperately trying to achieve.

"Aw bloody hell!" Liam screamed from the couch, jumping up quickly in response to his favorite player getting red-carded.

"Blows, mate," Zayn chuckled, Louis looking at him fondly.

"Where's Niall? He would never miss a game like this," Liam asked.

Louis looked around nervously as Zayn stiffened, his eyes facing forward and a look of pain falling over his chiseled features. Liam looked around in confusion for a moment before he realized what he had done.

"I'm—I'm sorry...slipped my mind," he looked down with sorry eyes.

I could feel myself going paler. I jumped up from the couch and moved towards the hallway in one swift movement.

I walked to my room and shut the door, leaving it cracked slightly as I flopped back on my messy bed. I could hear the silence in the other room, the usual feeling of comfort disappearing from the whole of our flat.

I tried taking deep breaths to calm myself when I heard some hushed voices break the silence in the living room. They seemed to be getting more rushed, more heated. I snuck into the hallway, careful not to make a noise when I opened my door. I had just beyond the shadows, eager to hear what they were saying.

"Someone's got to tell him, I mean did you see his face?!"

"I don't know if he can handle it, Li. He's fragile—"

"Well in the state that he's in, I think Niall is much more fragile. Maybe this will help him."

"It'll ruin him, Liam. It'll ruin him."

I took a deep breath and emerged from the shadows, careful not to alert them to the fact that I had been listening in on their conversation. They exchanged nervous, pained glances as I took my seat back in the armchair.

"What'd I miss?" I asked quietly.

They all sat there for a moment, mouths agape as they all fumbled for the remote, turning the sound back up on the television. No one seemed to be paying attention to the game anymore; they all sat there in silence until it ended a painful twenty minutes later.

As soon as it was over, Liam shot up from the couch and grabbed his things in haste.

"Well lads, I'm off. Uh...thanks for having me over...do it again soon?"

He gave a quick wave and bolted out the door. Not missing a beat, I slipped out the door right behind him, trying desperately to catch up to him as he practically ran to his car.

"Hey, Liam! Wait—"

"Harry?"

I stopped in front of him, the street lamp illuminating us from overhead.

"I wanted to apologize for that back there. Its—it's been rough lately, you know, without him. And I haven't heard from him and I just have this feeling that they're keeping something from me and its just beginning to make me sick—"

"Harry, you need to go to him. The can keep all of this from you all they want, but the way you looked back there just made my heart break in my chest. You deserve to know what's going on."

Liam took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, curling it in my fingers hesitantly. He looked at me with sympathy, a hint of worry glinting in his brown eyes.

"Just...promise me that you won't be upset with him. There's a reason for all of this, just please don't blame him when you see him, okay?"

And with that, Liam ducked into his car and pulled away from the curb and disappeared around the corner.

I looked down at my hand; a smudged address written in Liam's messy scrawl lay drawn onto my skin. This was it, this was where he was.

As excitement grew inside me, I ran to my car, yanking my keys from my pocket and jumping inside. I raced down the street, eager to see Niall's face again; to hear his voice again, and his laugh. I was eager for all of it.

But as the excitement grew, so did the realization that what I was heading for might not be what I was expecting.

And I could have never anticipated what I was faced with when I found him.

//

SORRY ITS BEEN SO LONG, GUYS. WORK HAS BEEN A BITCH AND HONESTLY I WAS HAVING A HARD TIME WITH WHERE TO GO IN THE STORY. BUT I'M BACK AND READY FOR THIS SHIT TO GO DOWN! COMMENT AND VOTE TO LET ME KNOW WHATCHA THINK!

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